Hello all,

 

I'm looking at a 3TB Verbatim HDD at one of the local shops - 3TB, 7200RPM, 64MB cache, product code 53166 (e.g. here). Here it is about 20 EUR cheaper than 3TB Seagate Barracuda or 3TB WD Green.

 

However, I can't seem to find any useful information about these Verbatim internal drives on the Web. I presume Verbatim just resells these drives and the manufacturer is one of the big HDD companies? Does anyone have any idea what sort of drives these actually are and would the perform OK in an unRAID array?

 

Thanks for any feedback!

Yes, there are only a few manufacturers of drives that they could be.  Presumably, given their cheaper price, you're looking at a Seagate or Toshiba 7200rpm drive, as the WD 7200rpm's are priced at a premium. 

Verbatim used to make floppy disks years ago. I never knew them to make hard drives, and have not heard the brand name for at least 10 years. I am not sure, bit they could be white label drives which I have not had good experiences with. I bought 4 5TB drives that were white label but appeared to be WD REDS but were oddly 5.6T. Maybe they were WD, but not a single one passed preclear and all 4 went back. I would suggest buying something known and proven reliable.

Thank you both for your input. Bjp, I guess you make a good point with the reliability. I'm not sure if I'm prepared to risk the potential hassle of DOAs in exchange for 10-20% lower price. Over the past several years I bought 6 WD green drives (not all of them were for unRAID) and two of them were DOA. Of course I received a replacement fairly fast and the new drive was then OK, but nevertheless the whole process is an annoyance.

 

Edit: In the end, I opted for two WD Reds. Greens served my array for years without problems (except for those DOAs) and I expect these Reds to work even more reliably.

Based on the screw pattern bottom left corner of drive my guess on Manufacturer would be HGST.

I have not seen Verbatim branding internal drives, but they have branded external drives from time to time.  Those external Verbatim branded units that I have bought in the past used internal drives from WD and also from Samsung.  My guess is that in this case there may not be any certainty that the drive received would be the same as the one in the illustration. 

I received the two WD Reds I ordered today and one of them is DOA. Tried it in three different computers - after power on the mechanism keeps spinning up and down and the system never detects the drive. I guess WD quality remains the same even after all these years. Makes me wonder if it was worth it at all spending the few extra coins on Reds. Greens still serve me well once the DOAs were replaced.

I received the two WD Reds I ordered today and one of them is DOA. Tried it in three different computers - after power on the mechanism keeps spinning up and down and the system never detects the drive. I guess WD quality remains the same even after all these years. Makes me wonder if it was worth it at all spending the few extra coins on Reds. Greens still serve me well once the DOAs were replaced.

 

I agree with your sentiments Once you're past the mortality period. I know other senior hats like Gaz like the Reds better. Rated for longer / better warrenty etc for what you're paying extra they think it's worth it. And I agree - at thier price point (In the US I assume).

 

Here in AUS (at the moment) the price difference is much wider. I run 3TB Reds now (bought when the AUS $ was stronger) and have to say they have been perfect. But for my new Rig I have to consider the Greens (at least when selecting a 6 TB drive) because they are so much cheaper than thier Red counterpart. Couple that with the fact that there is very little "material" difference in the drives AND in my scenario I could "self insure" with an extra Green disk cheaper than what I could buying the required Reds AND I could run WDIDLE3 to set the Greens head parking delay to match the Reds. Decision made for me, but as I note in the thread below " ...it comes down here to what I want to pay for and if the extra $$ is worth the warranty ..."

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=39025.0